Rush Limbaugh's Robin Williams quotes draw fire

By SARAH SMITH | 8/12/14 6:36 PM EDT
Updated: 8/13/14 11:29 AM EDT

Commentators reacted swiftly to condemn remarks conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh made Tuesday during a segment in which Limbaugh suggested actor Robin Williams’ “leftist worldview” played a part in his apparent suicide.

Liberal-leaning watchdog group Media Matters accused Limbaugh of “exploiting” Williams’ death to attack the political left. Another headline, this one from the site Uproxx, called Limbaugh’s remarks “impossibly stupid.”

Limbaugh’s comments came a day after the 63-year-old actor was discovered dead at his home of an apparent suicide.

“Now, what is the left’s worldview in general? What is it? If you had to attach not a philosophy but an attitude to a leftist worldview, it’s one of pessimism and darkness, sadness,” Limbaugh said on his radio show, according to a transcript. “They’re never happy, are they? They’re always angry about something. No matter what they get, they’re always angry.”

Limbaugh pointed out three actor friends of Williams’ who had died young and declared that Williams could never get over “the guilt that they died and he didn’t.”

“Well, that is a constant measurement that is made by political leftists in judging the country,” he said.